Video: Voice-Command System Rivals Siri

The Raspberry Pi mini-PC has been used for countless DIY projects since its creation, including 3D printers, drones, a LEGO-based robot, and makeshift DJ soundboard. Now, two Princeton University students bring us a voice-command system for our homes, based on the simple and affordable Raspberry Pi.

Charlie Marsh and Shubhro Saha developed the open-source device that they named
Jasper. The technology is similar to iOS's Siri or Google's Google Now. The British Jasper is an always-on, voice-command system that provides users with requested information any time.

Jasper is an impressive, inexpensive, open-source, home-based voice-command system and a very simple and useful tool for the average DIYer.

The best part is that Jasper is only limited by your programming capabilities. Currently, Jasper comes prepared to tell you the time, weather, news, email notifications, bad jokes, and can even play songs from Spotify. The virtual assistant, however, is an open-source device and comes equipped with a developer API that can be customized via the Python programming language.

After setting up the equipment, Jasper is always waiting for voice commands. When you're getting ready for work, you need only yell out, "Jasper, what is the weather like?" After a few seconds, Jasper will respond, "This is Chicago. No one can predict the weather." Well... maybe not. He's not quite as cheeky as Siri.

With a little programming you can get Jasper to read you updates from your social media accounts, news headlines, and even send commands to other automated devices in your home. Whatever Jasper's response, you'll need to listen very closely to understand his robotic speech. He sounds something like a 1980s film bot.

For those less creative DIYers, the Jasper website holds a plethora of information on how to set up your Jasper and provides various download links and information on how to customize your device.

Saha has worked on a number of other developments, including Spamchat, for spamming your friends' Snapchat; LiveTwin, a hacker's dropbox; and SimpleHTTPServer, for instant file-sharing.

Marsh is a self-proclaimed nerd of functional programming and machine learning. Aside from the novel Raspberry Pi-based virtual assistant, he has also worked on Quizzler, an automatic question generator for iOS powered by Python; Grapher, a tool for creating graphs using iOS; and Rule-Opt, an SDN Rule Optimizer for heterogeneous hardware.

Both Marsh and Saha are in their third year of undergraduate studies at Princeton University.

@NadineJ: When I think about the gender of voices in a smartphone AI, I always think about male voices. It?s hard to choose between the two, but I think male voices selection should be made. I personally like the voice of the Nanosuit 1.0 from the Crysis video game series. It has an extremely soothing macho voice. You really get goose bumps when you choose cloak to hide from aliens and it bellows ?Cloak Engaged? while the aliens move past you without noticing you.

AIs come with predefined knowledge and newer knowledge can be updated through software patches, but what about being taught by the user? I think mobile AIs should include a system that allows it to be taught things by users, like we teach a baby so that it can communicate with us appropriately. This can either be voice commanded or can be through a slight programming of the inputs.

They not only made everything 100% open source but are always there to help the users to deal with their queries so that anyone can setup his own Jasper without any difficulties.

Providing tech support is a huge plus - everything about this project makes it ideal for exciting interest in technology. I could see this as a cool project for in high school classrooms or electronic clubs.

They not only made everything 100% open source but are always there to help the users to deal with their queries so that anyone can setup his own Jasper without any difficulties. Good software developers can also contribute to Jasper by adding their expertise to the project and integrating things that are missing. It is indeed a very nice customizable project for everyone.

What I love most is the affordability and the DIY aspect. Both of these qualities make it an ideal project for getting people excited about technology and it is just plain fun - I am going to suggest it to my teenage son. The only thing I don't like is the robotic voice is hard to understand, but you can't argue with the price and that would only go up if it were improved...kudos to these young men for both their accomplishment and their desire to share it!

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